The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol (Naval Staff Histories) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is an expanded and largely revised version of a restricted circulation internal staff review prepared for the instruction of British naval officers in 1947. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, it was decided to have a new edition prepared for the benefit of the general public. The author/editor
benefitted from attending a reunion in Israel of former illegal immigrant ship commanders. Most people are familiar with the
popular Leon Uris novel EXODUS -- and the movie version. This book provides an in-depth look at the command and practical difficulties faced by the villains of the fictional account.
Regardless of what one might think about the British White Paper
of 1939, which had the effect of severely curtailing Jewish immigration to Palestine just as the European Holocaust got underway, one can appreciate how the Navy had no recourse but
to comply with the policy set by Whitehall for their own reasons of state. That they did so humanely and with the minimum of
force commensurate with the plight of the refugees they intercepted comes through in this study. Beyond the issues of interest to students of Israeli history, the book covers the
dilemmas of conducting coastal anti-smuggling blockade using ships and doctrines designed for open-ocean warfare.
A found a few references, such as comparing Irgun methods to
those employed by the Nazis against Jewish victims, a bit jarring and overdone. But on the whole, this book is a welcome
and refreshing revelation on how the Royal Navy professionalism
coped with a thankless task for which they had been ill-prepared.

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This is an entirely new Naval Staff History covering the period immediately after the Second World War and the Royal Navy operations to prevent illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine, at the time under British Mandate from the United Nations.The Palestine Patrol, as it became known, illustrates clearly the problems facing navies conducting operations other than war; in particular those involving maritime embargo measures.